Black and White

korolikov chess problem

A curiously ambiguous problem by V.A. Korolikov. Mate in 1. Either side can fulfill this easily — but which has the move?

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White’s knights began the game on squares of opposite color, but now they’re both on white squares. That means that, between them, they’ve made an odd number of moves in this game. By a similar argument White’s rooks and king have made an even number of moves in total, and we can see that White has made a single pawn move. White’s bishops haven’t moved, and his queen must have been captured on her home square. So White has made an even number of moves. The same considerations apply to Black’s position, but he’s made an extra pawn move, so altogether he’s made an odd number of moves. Since White moved first, this means it’s Black turn to move, and he can mate with 1. Nxc2#. (From Schach, 1957, via Noam D. Elkies and Richard P. Stanley, “The Mathematical Knight,” Mathematical Intelligencer 25:1 [December 2003], 22-34.)